State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge To California's Gun Laws

NPR: The U.S. Supreme Court has, once again, declined to hear a Second Amendment case, turning away a constitutional challenge to a 10-day waiting period for the purchase of guns in California. The court's decision not to hear the case came over an angry dissent from conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.

The decision to stay out of the California case is the latest sign of the justices' reluctance to enter the national debate over gun control. While the decision has no legal importance, the practical effect is to leave in place California's waiting period, and others like it. Such laws are designed in part to prevent impulsive violence and suicides.

Gun rights activists had argued that the 10-day waiting period violates the second amendment guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms, especially for those who already legally own guns and have passed background checks.

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